Voodoo economics? That is what George I called Reagan’s supply side economic package back in 1980.
Quickly from the wikipedia:
The typical policy recommendation of supply-side economics is to achieve the proper level of marginal tax rates, which, by virtue of the high rate of taxes in general, equates with cutting of taxes.[2] Maximum benefits are achieved by optimizing the marginal tax rates of those with high-incomes and capital who are deemed as most likely to increase supply and thus spur growth.[3] Mainstream Keynesian macroeconomics, by contrast, contends that tax cuts should be used to increase demand, not supply, and thus should be targeted at cash-strapped, lower-income households, who are more likely to spend additional income
Reagan’s ideas:
- reduce the growth of government spending,
- reduce marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital,
- reduce government regulation of the economy,
- control the money supply to reduce inflation
I recall when this whole election process began so many months ago and the Republicans were invoking the name and policies of Reagan trying to gain the upper hand over their opponents. Funny what a difference 6 months can make.
To answer the question…NO it is not, only parts of it, the Repubs still push the reduced regs and the spending cuts and then the always popular tax cuts. The current crap in the economic spheres shows that it is not. My fav is that tax cuts create jobs. That is a sweeping statement, has not worked well in the last year or so, but yet it is still taunted as a savior of the economy.
Why do I say this? To me the whole thing sounds like a massive BS ploy. We will borrow money from banks to give to banks and then hope that any benefits would trickle down through the system to help the average taxpayer. Trickle down economics has not worked as promised in the past and I doubt that it will it this situation.